Could COVID-19 stunt progress towards the Second Division?

As Australian football enters a new phase of growth and reflection, A-League Women players are seeking to ensure the future of their competition is shaped with them, not around them. A new player-led vision announced last week at Ultra Football in Abbotsford, sets out what those inside the game believe is required for the league to move beyond survival and toward sustainable professionalism.

A shared vision

Ready For Takeoff is a player-driven vision for the future of the A-League Women, developed through consultation with player delegates from every club across the competition. Led by Professional Footballers Australia, the initiative brings together the shared priorities of those currently navigating the league’s semi-professional reality. It outlines what players believe is required to move the competition toward long-term sustainability.

Rather than offering broad aspirations, the document focuses on practical and achievable reforms, spanning professionalism, governance and resourcing. Its emphasis is on creating conditions that allow players to train, recover and compete at a level consistent with a fully professional league. While also building structures capable of supporting future growth.

A-League Women player Dylan Holmes believes the process revealed how closely aligned players’ experiences were across the league. “When we came together, it was clear we all faced very similar challenges but wanted the same things,” Holmes said. “This work is the culmination of those discussions and outlines realistic, tangible steps to take the game to the next level.”

PFA Chief Executive Beau Busch – Image Credit: One Nil

The cost of the current system

Behind the league’s growing visibility, many A-League Women players continue to operate within a system defined by short-term contracts and a largely semi-professional structure. Club commitments are made increasingly more difficult as players must balance additional employment or study, limited training and recovery time, and questions over long-term security. The result is not only personal and financial strain, but broader consequences for the competition’s ability to retain talent and support player wellbeing.

These conditions also shape the league’s development pathways, with young players often forced to make difficult choices about whether a professional career in football is viable in Australia. PFA chief executive Beau Busch said players had been clear about the sacrifices required simply to remain in the game. “We’ve heard from players about the struggle and sacrifices they continue to make to play the game they love, but we can do so much more than this.”

“A fully professional game is crucial to creating the next generation of Matildas and achieving our potential.”

Turning Matilda’s momentum into domestic opportunity

Throughout the launch, speakers repeatedly pointed to the Matildas as both a benchmark and a blueprint for what sustained investment in the women’s game can deliver. PFA chief executive Beau Busch referenced the national team’s commercial success to highlight the opportunity facing the A-League Women, arguing that professionalism at domestic level is essential to converting broader public interest into a viable league product.

The comparison was framed less as imitation than as evidence of latent value. The Matildas’ ability to attract audiences, sponsors and broadcast attention was presented as proof of concept for what is possible when the women’s game is properly resourced. A-League Women player Dylan Holmes echoed that sentiment, saying “when you invest in women, really amazing things will come.” For the A-League Women, speakers argued, the task is to build structures that allow the domestic competition to capture that momentum and present a compelling, sustainable proposition to commercial stakeholders.

The Players’ Vision for the A-League Women – Image Credit: One Nil

A moment for new thinking in governance

Central to the players’ vision is a call for governance structures that are fit for purpose. This is particularly important at a time when leadership across Australian football is in transition. The Ready For Takeoff document argues that the A-League Women’s development has been constrained by a club-majority APL board. It says that this practice does not adequately recognise the specific needs of the women’s game.

Instead, the players advocate for an independent commission model, similar to those governing the AFL and NRL, with transparent rules, appropriate gender representation and mandated expertise in women’s football. The aim, the document argues, is not simply reform for reform’s sake, but the creation of a structure capable of stewarding the A-League Women’s growth. Achieving this in its own right, rather than as an adjunct to the men’s competition.

That argument lands at a moment of change. The recent appointment of Steve Rosich as chief executive of the APL and Martin Kugeler as the new CEO of Football Australia, has opened a window for fresh thinking about how the domestic game is governed. For players, the timing presents a rare opportunity: to ensure that new strategies are shaped not only by commercial imperatives, but by the lived realities of those sustaining the league on the pitch.